Why Samsung needs to move beyond Android -- and Google

Matt Hamblen |
July 14, 2014

The company's profit problems show its hardware focus isnt enough.

Samsung's relationship with Google continues to be baffling.

The two companies continually tussle quietly over Android, with Samsung experimenting with the Tizen OS in its new Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches while using Android as the base OS for its smartphone and tablet portfolio globally. (And it consistently modifies each generation of the Android OS with various Samsung customizations.)

It's hard to know whether the two companies quietly hate each other while remaining diplomatic in public as they wrestle over a variety of mobile initiatives in the spirit of "competing while cooperating."

Some economists call that "co-opetition." However you define it, this is a relationship that needs to undergo big changes in the next two years as Samsung tries to find ways to stay profitable beyond producing multiple new versions of its smartphones and tablets.

At Google I/O last month, Google executive Sundar Pichai announced that the next version of Android, dubbed 'L,' will have a range of enterprise-focused security and management features, including a separation of work and personal data on devices. Samsung had been focusing heavily on making its own Android devices secure for enterprises with its Samsung Knox software for the last two years.

"We really want to thank Samsung for [carrying over] Knox to all of Android," Pichai said in a keynote address. "There will be one consistent experience."

Notably, Pichai didn't even mention Google's purchase in May of Divide, which makes enterprise software focused on helping companies deal with bring-your-own-device issues.

Divide was also not mentioned in a statement Samsung issued during I/O that said "part" of its Knox technology will be included in Android L (without a delineation of which part that might be).

At the time, Samsung's Injong Rhee, senior vice president of Knox, described the cooperation with Google over the technology as a "groundbreaking partnership with Google."

Pure Android and Samsung's Android

It's worth noting that whatever differences there might be behind the scenes, Android currently keeps Samsung and Google linked at the hips. Both companies heavily depend on the OS, which runs in 80% of all smartphones shipped. Samsung is by far the largest purveyor of smartphones and tablets running Android, which Google provides to Samsung and other vendors as an open source OS.

Even so, Samsung customizes its smartphones and tablets with a variety of user experiences and interfaces and its own software and apps. One example is the recent S Health app (the 'S' for Samsung) for tracking personal fitness that can be loaded on the Galaxy S 5 smartphone to connect via Bluetooth to the Gear 2 smartwatch. While the Gear 2 and its cousin, the Gear 2 Neo, both run on the Tizen OS, so does the Samsung Z smartphone, as will a TV that's expected in 2015.